Should I get a new computer for school or stay put?

[wastedplacidity]

I'm certain I'm going to go into cybersecurity as a career choice and I'm wondering how my computers will do for the curriculum. I currently have a HP Omen 17 with a i7-9750h / 16gb ram / rtx 2070 8gb / 256gb ssd and 1tb hdd. My dad lets me use his mac he never uses it and it's from 2016. it has a i7 / 16gb ram / 512gb ssd / some amd radeon / and touch bar. It's dinged up a little bit and the battery isn't the best.

I was actually considering selling my gaming pc and with a little bit extra upgrade to an iMac 27". I've always been in awe of those. I know I'd need to run windows so I'd need an intel CPU. Would the intel cpus on a 2020 or 2019 iMac be supported much longer?

Or would I just be better off keeping the hardware I have, not go through the hassle of selling, etc. I use an Android phone as well. I really love my setup and am grateful but I've always been in awe of the iMacs. Maybe just need a external productivity monitor? I don't know. Thoughts?

 

[pmiles]

Until you really know what your needs will be, it makes more sense to wait. You might find what you have is up to the task or not. Either way, you will have a firm idea as to what you really need.

As for the INTEL Macs... not worth the investment at this point based on your use case. You're not going to be able to run the latest Windows OS as Apple will not provide bootcamp support for it. So while it can still run windows, it can only run a depreciated version of it. You will get no driver support from Apple and because the chipset is Apple based, many of the graphics drivers won't be offered in a flavor that supports your hardware from the vendor side of things.

It's a fine computer in it's own right, but only if you intend to basically use it like it were in a time capsule. It is stuck in time. The new ARM Macs may or may not eventually run Windows in emulation mode. Apple clearly has no interest in making that happen.

Remember this, you future employer is going to provide you with the equipment you need to do the job. Whatever you use in school will never be used in your work. Don't buy a computer with your future work in mind as 1) you don't know what that is yet, and 2) anything you get today will be obsolete tomorrow anyways.

Save your money. You're likely going to need it when you finish your studies far more than you will need a new computer during your studies.

 

[wastedplacidity]

Until you really know what your needs will be, it makes more sense to wait. You might find what you have is up to the task or not. Either way, you will have a firm idea as to what you really need.

As for the INTEL Macs... not worth the investment at this point based on your use case. You're not going to be able to run the latest Windows OS as Apple will not provide bootcamp support for it. So while it can still run windows, it can only run a depreciated version of it. You will get no driver support from Apple and because the chipset is Apple based, many of the graphics drivers won't be offered in a flavor that supports your hardware from the vendor side of things.

It's a fine computer in it's own right, but only if you intend to basically use it like it were in a time capsule. It is stuck in time. The new ARM Macs may or may not eventually run Windows in emulation mode. Apple clearly has no interest in making that happen.

Remember this, you future employer is going to provide you with the equipment you need to do the job. Whatever you use in school will never be used in your work. Don't buy a computer with your future work in mind as 1) you don't know what that is yet, and 2) anything you get today will be obsolete tomorrow anyways.

Save your money. You're likely going to need it when you finish your studies far more than you will need a new computer during your studies.

Thank you so much! That was very thought out. I didn't know the intel macs couldn't run Windows 11 via bootcamp. I'm going to stick with what I have and keep my PC. Hope you had a wonderful holiday and you stay safe.

 

[SteveJUAE]

I would not waste my money

Schools, college, Uni have little or nothing to do with Windows or Mac-os, there is no advantage curriculum wise to having latest or best hardware etc

At work most probable outcome would be windows based but you will be given hardware to use

Use what you prefer for personal computing